It's Rag Radio's 200th show, and Thorne Dreyer's guest in this lively discussion is Paul Buhle, whose latest work, "Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith," relates the radical social message of Jesus Christ in comic art format.
Buhle has been a leading figure on the American Left since the 1960s. A noted historian, educator, writer, editor, and publisher, Buhle is a retired Senior Lecturer at Brown University. Alan Wieder, writing at The Rag Blog (http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/books-alan-wieder-paul-buhles-radical.html), called Paul Buhle "one of the most prolific and insightful critics from the American left." He is the author or editor of more than 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series of nonfiction comic art volumes including "A People's History of American Empire" (with Howard Zinn); "Jews and American Popular Culture" (three volumes); and books on Robin Hood, Che Guevara, Emma Goldman, the Wobblies, and SDS. He is the authorized biographer of C.L.R. James.
Buhle was active in the civil rights movement and worked with SDS in the Sixties. He was founding editor of the influential journal, Radical America (1967-1999). (His "Radical America Komiks" produced in collobaration with underground comix pioneer Gilbert Shelton of Austin, helped introduce the radical new medium to the American Left.) Buhle was also founder of Cultural Correspondence (1977-83), a journal of popular culture studies; and founder and director of the Oral History of the American Left archive at New York University. He has contributed frequently to leading publications including The Nation, The Village Voice, Monthly Review, Jewish Currents, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The San Francisco Chronicle.
Host and Producer of Rag Radio: Thorne Dreyer; Engineer and Co-Producer: Tracey Schulz; Apprentice: Ioannis Gatsiounis. Rag Radio (koop.org/ragradio) is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer, cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas, in association with The Rag Blog (theragblog.blogspot.com) and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The show is broadcast (and streamed) live Fridays, 2-3 p.m. (Central) on KOOP, and is rebroadcast and streamed on WFTE-FM in Mt. Cobb and Scranton, PA., Sundays at 10 a.m. (Eastern time) and on Houston Pacifica's KPFT HD-3 90.1 on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. (Central). Contact: ragradio@koop.org. Running time: 57:25.